On reading my (rather rough and ready) travel diary, one thing jumps out at me and bites me on the backside - there's a hell of a lot of food in there!  It seems to me I ate my way around the USA - so here's a taste of what I found.

Los Angeles

Dinner with Mike and Charlotte Kirby at Trastevere in Santa Monica.  Lovely Italian tucker.

Dallas

Found a fabulous coffee milk at the airport (skinny double iced latte for my American readers). Finally got some Vegemite into me - bought some toast at a diner and spread the black stuff on it from the jar in my bag.

Albuquerque

La Placita Dining Room in the Old Town - dinner with Alice and her family.  Divine food, enchiladas to die for, and those weird pastry thingies with honey - Alice, let me know if I've got this wrong.  Santa Fe:  brunch at a net cafe, from where I sent "Bulletin #2".

Houston (we have a problem!)

Naughty chocolate cake for afternoon tea at The Galleria; dinner at Goode Company - authentic Texas barbecue.  Unbelievably good (but why do they call it barbecue?).  Followed by three kinds of pie - Pumpkin, Key Lime, and French Blackbottom (oh, my groaning waistband).

Just-what-I-needed greasy breakfast, dinner was a Gathering at Doneraki - a Tex-Mex restaurant - yum.  Followed by the (much anticipated by me) consumption of Kerry's gift of port.

Lubbock

No lissuns in Lubbock, but home-made fajitas my second night there with my first net-buddy.  More drinking than eating in Lubbock, I left only just in time - before cirrhosis set in.

San Francisco

Gathering:  Aperitifs at Broadway Joe's (the Anchor Steam is rather good), dinner next door at Little Joe's - good Italian food.  Dessert at El Greco - an unbelievably moist and lemony Lemon Cake to go with the only long black coffee I found in the entire USA.  Jim's bottle of Marsala went nicely with dessert.

Lunch next day at B44, a Catalan restaurant with an appalling waitress but good food (I'm sure Jim wouldn't agree about the waitress).  Dinner was tapas at Cha Cha Cha.  I'm surprised I didn't have to pay for excess weight on my flight out of SFO (and I don't mean baggage).

Seattle

First night was a home-cooked roast beef - thanks Ginger!  Next day was lunch at a waterfront place (my first root beer, very nice) and Dilettante Chocolates on the way home.  Dinner at the Snappy Dragon - very good Chinese.

Minneapolis

More home-cooked food:  soup and some lovely crusty bread.

Next day a Thai brunch (divine), then the Minnesota Lissun Gathering III.  I have photos of the groaning festive board - there was more food than you could poke a stick at.  Someone help me with a list of it all, for I keep sticking at the giant Spotted Dog with custard.  The cleansing ales I had that night aren't helping my memory either!

Brunch again next day, a very tasty frittata followed by a spin around the Mall of America.

Cedar Rapids

Fabulous, more home cooking:  very nice steaks barbecued in the snowy backyard.  Next day were the "finest pork tenderloins in the world" in Solon for lunch, and dinner at Amana, German family-style cooking (can you hear my waistband groaning again?).

Next day, off to the Thistle Farm for a quick visit, including lunch at The Right Spot in Denver, Iowa (?).  Words can't describe how good the burger, chips and onion rings were - just the best I have ever had.  I dream about that burger.

Dinner that night at a Mexican restaurant - our waiter was most entertaining.

Chicago

Note to self:  don't try to grab a quick smoke when flying through Chicago - it takes half an hour to get outside.  Leave plenty of time.

Pittsburgh

Ah, another home-cooked meal - Lois did roast beef (the way to my heart) and dessert was called a brownie but it didn't look or taste like any brownie I'd ever seen before.

Note to self:  get that brownie recipe from Lois and get it fast!

Breakfast was American traditional at Apple Annie's (more yum), lunch at The Stone House, dinner was a huge buffet affair with a marvelous chicken dish, a frittata, home-made pita bread and a gorgeous heart-shaped chocolate eclair (also home-made) among other things of which I failed to make a note.

Next day lunch was at the Museum of Natural History, and dinner at The Grand Concourse (what a building!) which for me was a sirloin steak and white chocolate cheesecake - heavenly!

Washington DC

Home-cooked roast beef for dinner, pity my stomach chose that evening to rebel - must have been the micro-brewery beer I had with lunch at a tavern in Annapolis (which was very nice at the time, believe me!)

Dinner next night was after a very liquid afternoon, so I can't tell you the name of the Italian restaurant we graced with our patronage - but I can tell you they were the finest lamb (chops? cutlets?) I've eaten in a long while.

Next day we had afternoon tea very high up in the National Cathedral.  The day after that I have to let you down - lunch was at "Wendy's"!  Between Goddard Space Flight Centre and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, a girl needs a little junk food (if only to remind her that her feet are still firmly - ever more firmly! - on the ground).  Dinner was a fine home-cooked roast of pork.

London

Heavens, two gatherings with the Kleins while they were in England - one in their sumptuous rooms off Kensington High Street, and one in a restaurant (the name of which I forget).  Fabulous food both times, you can be sure of that.

Portsmouth

Lord, does anyone remember what we ate?  I remember things like loud conversation, laughter and more laughter, then more conversation, but the food has completely slipped from my memory.  However, there was definitely port.

So, that's my gastronomic tour of the homes and home towns of US and UK lissuns.  It wasn't meant to be a gastronomic tour, but it seems to have turned out that way!